Summer time in Texas makes you think of floating on the river, going to Kemah boardwalk and ice cold beer. As summer approaches Brewfest’s sixth annual and Karbach’s newest music and beer festival couldn’t have come at a better time — they’ll introduce to you the new drinks you’ll be adding to your summer cooler. Keep an open mind as you try some newer flavors that you may have overlooked on your H-E-B and Whole Foods shelves.
Beer is pretty cool. When the Houston Press and Lucky’s Pub team up (sorry/not sorry, but we’re going to brag a little bit), brewski becomes nuclear-level lit and insanely cool. The sixth annual Houston Press BrewFest, presented by Whole Foods Market, will feature new participants Cedar Creek Brewery, Locust Cider and Revolver Brewing, as well as top-shelf brewmeisters such as Buffalo Bayou, Independence, Austin Eastciders, Guinness, Ballast Point, Deep Ellum, 8th Wonder, Founders, Odell and Stone. The vibe is chill, so tip back from your choice of more than 150 varieties of suds during this indoor/outdoor beer-sampling extravaganza; food trucks and live music will be there too. All tickets come with eight three-ounce beer samplings, with the opportunity to purchase more tickets, which you’ll want to do since it is on a Saturday after all. Requirements include being at least 21 years of age (duh) and having fun.
3 to 7 p.m. Saturday. Silver Street Station, 1500 Silver. For information, see brewfest.com. $30 to $55.
Adam and Eve fell from Heaven because of one. Paula Abdul had a cold-hearted one. Samuel L. Jackson famously exclaimed he was tired of seeing them on planes. Yet the Houston Arboretum says snakes don’t necessarily deserve the bad rap people give them. Make your way down to the nature preserve to get up close with our serpent friends for Arboretum at Night: Snakes. All things that slither aren’t necessarily evil, says the center’s Christine Mansfield, marketing and development associate. “They’re just as scared of you as you are of them,” she explains. “It will be very controlled. It’s a very safe environment.” The jury is still out if we’re willing to hold a snake this Saturday…but we trust that the folks at the arboretum know what they’re doing. The complimentary Saint Arnold beer, Katz Coffee and light snacks along the trail walk can’t hurt either.
6:30 p.m to 8:30 p.m. Saturday. 4501 Woodway. For information, call 713-681-8433 or visit houstonarboretum.org. $30 to $45.
It was a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. June Christensen, CEO of Society for the Performing Arts, spotted New York-based choreographer Jessica Lang about five years ago in New York. “I was at [festival] Jacob’s Pillow that summer and Jessica was making her opera directorial debut, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, at Glimmerglass,” recalls Christensen. Recognizing something extraordinary, Christensen invited Jessica Lang Dance to Houston. Saturday marks SPA’s second visit by the company, this time with an interesting Houston twist: Tesseracts of Time, which makes its Texas premiere, is a dance for architecture, co-commissioned by SPA, with massive sets designed by Steven Holl Architects. Both elements of architecture and dance will collide this Saturday for a performance of visual art that will also illustrate Holl’s strengths in design. (In his spare time, Holl is busy putting his stamp on the MFAH’s campus expansion.) Christensen tells us that Holl will also discuss his collaboration at 7 p.m. May 19 at MFAH ($5 to $10).
8 p.m. Saturday. Wortham Theater Center, 501 Texas. For information, call 713-227-4772 or visit spahouston.org. $43 to $103.
There’s no better feeling than pouring a beer from the tap – no head, getting that first cold Karbach out of the fridge or celebrating the the inaugural year of a festival at Houston’s beloved Karbach Brewing Company. That’s right – this will be the first year of the newest festival in Houston, the Love Street Music Festival. The festival is named after the beer named after the hip music spot of the 60’s here in Bayou City- Love Street. Grab one this Sunday afternoon while you’re there to see why this particular beverage of theirs holds strong as one of Karbach’s most popular.
1 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday. Karbach Brewing Company, 2032 Karbach Street. For information, call 713-680-2739 or visit karbachbrewing.com $34 to $129.
What is it about fence lines that drives people so crazy? It doesn’t have to be big walls stretching thousands of miles across a country; the lines of demarcation between two households, such as in playwright Karen Zacarias’s Native Gardens, make otherwise rational people behave, well, less than their best. Zacarias’s comedy takes on race, immigration and stereotyping in a way that, without sermonizing, shows how ridiculous most of us can be at times. Tania and Pablo, married up-and-comers in their thirties, have moved into a mostly white neighborhood. Tania, a Ph.D. student, is from New Mexico; Pablo, an attorney in a big firm, is from Chile. Next door are Frank and Virginia, she an engineer and he a consultant for “the agency,” who sees his new neighbors as “Mexican.” His obsession with his garden and landscaping puts him at direct odds with Tania, who finds it absurd and ecologically unsound that he’s cultivating an English garden in mid-Atlantic America — and tells him so. Playwright Zacarias says her 90-minute one-act is a rollicking ride. “It’s like a rolling train. You won’t know what hit you.” She says the ending is hopeful and surprising. “This is not about people you dislike doing horrible things. You go back and forth about who’s right, but the person you’re really judging is yourself.” Take the reflective lesson you’ll pickup in this Sunday’s performance as a tool to be exercised during the rest of you week while you navigate through Houston’s fast paced m.o.
3 p.m. Sundays. Continues 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays Through June 11. Main Street Theater Rice Village, 2540 Times. For information call 713-524-6706 or visit mainstreettheater.com. $36 to $45.
Margaret Downing, Sam Byrd, Steve Jansen and Susie Tommaney contributed to this post.
This article appears in May 11-17, 2017.